NEWCASTLE skipper Christian Henry won all four of his races in last night’s Premier League victory over Mildenhall despite giving up on wearing a special brace to protect his broken rib.

“I tried the brace but then I couldn’t breathe,” admitted Henry after leading the Diamonds recovery from an early 15-9 deficit in a meeting delayed by 30 minutes to allow extra track work after heavy mid-afternoon shower.

Friday’s trip to Somerset and Saturday’s match at Rye House had both been washed out so this was Henry’s comeback after his crash at Berwick a fortnight ago and he resumed his partnership with Carl Wilkinson superbly as they teamed up for a hat-trick of 5-1s.

Wilkinson completed the last of those with a brilliant swoop outside Mildenhall’s top scorer Kyle Legault to snatch second place on the final lap of heat 10 as Newcastle went 32-28 ahead for their first lead since the opening race. Jonas Raun let a winning position slip to the Fen Tigers’ Tom P Madsen in the final moments of heat 11 but Josef Franc’s second victory of the night in heat 12 and Ross Brady’s second win in heat 14 helped settled the match with a race to spare.

Brady needed that success after going from second to last far too easily against visiting duo Paul Fry and Mark Baseby in heat nine.

Legault’s third win dashed Wilkinson’s hopes of a paid maximum in the final heats but none of the other Mildenhall riders won more than once and former Redcar man Tomas Suchanek scored only one point during his last two rides after threatening a high score in the earlier action.

Before the meeting, a minute’s silence was observed following the death last week of former referee Will Hunter from Cramlington, who was one of the sport’s most respected officials nationwide.